Dr. Giganto

If you love the league, if you care about it at all, then you're more excited about these next four months than you've been about anything since Michael, Larry and Magic were playing. Forget about the fact the West is so impossibly wide-open, or the juicy possibility of a Lakers-Celtics Finals (imagine seeing those uniforms on the same court in June again???), or the risky trades that lifted the "No Balls Association" tag and had everyone buzzing. Have you noticed what the new generation of All-Stars has in common?



These are all likable guys.


What's not to like about LeBron James? Dwyane Wade? Chris Bosh? Chris Paul? Deron Williams? Brandon Roy? Dwight Howard? Throw in Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Gilbert Arenas, Monta Ellis and Al Horford, and you're talking about an entire team of likable and gifted stars under the age of 25. There isn't a bad apple in the bunch. From a historical standpoint, LeBron has a chance to be one of the best 10 players ever. Howard has a chance to be one of the best big men ever. And Paul has a chance to surpass Isiah Thomas as the greatest 6-footer ever.

Think about what a boost this has been for the NBA. Following MJ's first retirement in 1993, the ensuing 12 years were a gnarly stretch of wasted talent and wasted time. There were too many unlikable stars, too much crotch grabbing and chest thumping, too much sneering and posturing, too many rookies who weren't ready, too much expansion, too many "superstars" mailing it in for $15-20 million a year, too many injuries, too little scoring and too much defense. Many of the league's greatest players just didn't resonate with casual fans, personified by the fact so many fans were turned off by Allen Iverson, only one of the fiercest competitors in sports. You need luck with this stuff, and the NBA definitely had some luck lately, peaking with LeBron's progress as a competitor and person -- unquestionably the most important thing that happened to the league since Jordan's ascent. He's a killer now. He gets it. He plays hard on both ends. He doesn't take nights off. He takes over at the right times. He has a flair for the moment, as we saw with that game-changing dunk Sunday night.

As one NBA higher-up whispered to me last weekend, "People still think we have an image problem, I just don't get it. Do they even watch us? Do they see the caliber of the guys we have now?"

That's the issue gnawing at everyone working for the league right now. The NFL has considerably more thugs, Major League Baseball has a steroids scandal that basically has tainted the past 15 years of games, yet somehow the NBA is still perceived as the league with an image problem? For god's sake, if the NBA can't put that tag to rest this year, of all years, then it's never happening, and we'll have to accept there are deeper issues at work here.

(Well, one deeper issue. And you know what it is.)

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He's right...after a decade of annoying, arrogant, selfish thugs, we now have a league of mostly great guys, led by Lebron, who looks like an absolute class act.

So, do you guys think racism is to blame? Or did the last 10-15 years ruin the NBA for so many fans that it's going to take some time for it to come back